We invite you to submit proposals for individual papers for the Fourth Annual Meeting of the South Asian Literary Association (SALA), an allied organization of the MLA.

The meeting, which will be held concurrently with the MLA Annual Convention in San Diego, will take place at a hotel very near the MLA convention hotels in order to facilitate your attendance at both conferences.

We welcome paper proposals on the literatures and cultures of South Asia and the South Asian diaspora. SALA 2003 would especially welcome the submission of abstracts on historical and theoretical issues with specific relevance to South Asian languages and literatures other than English (including the challenges of translation between South Asian languages and into English). Paper proposals may be both intra- and interdisciplinary, addressing the interconnected issues of globalization, ethnicity, and violence. We welcome an exploration of comparative contexts with appropriate historical and theoretical grounding.

The following is a list of possible topics for papers:

Biracial identities and South Asian Americanness

Activist and outreach work within and between communities: human rights, human security

Proliferation of life-writing

Youth culture and transnational identities

Neo-imperialism and anti-imperialism

Collaborations between and among the South Asian diaspora

Theorizing the post-colonial in current global contexts

A study of genre and representation through literature, visual arts, and the new media

Theorizing the South: (re)situating South Asians

Religious fundamentalism and identity politics

The role of the nation-state

Women and gender ; "Lakshman Rekha"

Dalits, caste politics, and theories of the border

South Asians, immigration, detention, and the "voluntary interview"

Interrogating the status of the "literary" in the South Asian Literary Association. What is the place of the literary? What constitutes the literary?

Popular culture - films, music

Intersections between transnational sexualities

Possible connections between theories of racial melancholia in Asian American and African American literatures and ideas of honor and shame in South Asian contexts

Redefining assimilation, integration, nationalism

9/11 and the valorization of violence

NEW DEADLINE: Please submit 300- to 350-word proposals (by fax, post, or in the body of an e-mail message) to the conference Co-Chairs by July 31, 2003.

SALA also publishes the refereed journal, South Asian Review (SAR). All abstracts accepted for the conference will be published in the special conference number of the SAR.

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